Valve



Feb. 14, 1950- 1.. E. snosfiou.

VALVE 2 Shets-Sheet 1 Filed Jan. 22, 1946 INVENTOR LORIN E. GROSBOLL ATTORNES Feb. 14, 1950 L. E. GROSBOLL 2,497,443

VALVE Filed Jan. 22, 1946 2 Sheets-Shee t 2 FIG 4 FIG. 5

I INVEIVTOR. LORIN E. GROSBOLL ATTORNEYS Patented Feb. 14, 1950 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE VALVE Lorin E. Grosboll, Decatur, 11L, asllgnor to Mueller 00., Decatur, 111., a

Application January 22, 1846, Serial No. 842,601 6 Claims- (Cl. 251-108) In the usual rotary plug valve employing o-rings onthe plug, the difliculty exists that as the ported plug is turned from on to oil position, the leading side of the O-ring passing the housing outlet its groove so as to be pinched and mutilated as it passes the far edge of the outlet port. This is caused by pressure passing around the plug in a path which includes the plug passage and letting past the leading side of the O-ring as it approaches the far edge of the outlet port and being trapped under the said leading side as it makes contact with the said edge. It the sealing means are applied to the valve seat instead of to the plug the same diillculty exists as regards the portion of the sealing means at the far side of the housing inlet port. The object of the present invention is to eliminate -this difllculty by so relating the O-rings, or equivalent continuous sealing elements, and ports, that when the plug is turned from on to oil position the housing port remote from the port at which the pinching would ordinarily occur is first sealed oil so as to cut of! the flow through the plug passage so that the disturbing action, which would be caused or permitted by such flow, is eliminated.

port tends to be forced out of e I have shown illustrative embodiments of the invention in the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 is a section of a rotary plug valve taken in a plane which includes the common axis of opposed housing inlet and outlet ports and is perpendicular to the plug axis, the .plug being equipped with sealing elements and being in on position,

Figure 2 is a section like that of Figure 1 with the plug approaching of! position,

Figure 3 is a section on line 3-3 of Figure 2,

Figure 4 is a section, like that of Figure 1, showing an arrangement in which the sealing elements are in the seat,

Figure 5 shows the plug of Figure 4 approaching of! position, and

Figure 6 is an elevation of the plug of Figures 4 and 5.

The valve of Figures 1 to 3 comprises a housing 5 defining a seat 8 of circular cross section, the seat being either cylindrical or tapered. The housing includes, as here shown, diametrically opposed necks I and 8 defining inlet and outlet ports 9 and i0 intersecting the seat. Port It includes an outer portion In of the same diamport and an inner portion l0" the seat and is of sub,"

eter as the inlet which directly intersects valve in a path a diametrical flow passage 29 with ohamfercd corporation at Illinois stantially greater diameter than and coaxial with portion II. The edge of portion Ill" is-chamiered.

Reference numeral I l designates a plug mating with the seat 6 and having a cylindrical diametrical flow passage l2 which, in the, on position of Figure 1, directly connects ports 9 and It. The passage includes ports l2 and I2". on opposite sides of the passage the plug is provided with continuous grooves l3 and H which in the oi! position surround port 9 and port portion ll", respectively, and in these grooves are disposed O-rings l5 and I6, respectively.

In Figure 2 the plug is being turned in the direction of the arrow l1 and is approaching oi! position, which position is reached when passage i2 is at right angles to the axis of necks 1 and I. It will be seen that the leading side of rin I! has passed the far side, in the direction of turn, of port 9 and is opposite the seat so as to seal therewith. The leading side of ring it, on the other hand, is still spaced from the far edge, in the direction of turn, of port portion III". This means that pressure in the port 9 cannot pass ring I! in any direction and so, in particular, cannot traverse passage i2 in the direction of arrow it to jet past the leading side of the ring it. This is in contrast to prior constructions wherein with the leading side of ring it positioned as shown-in Figure 2, the leading side of the ring It would not have reached the far edge of the inlet port, permitting pressure to pass around the including the plug passage and so let past the leading side of ring it with unseating eiiect.

It will be understood that with a plug provided with stop means so as to have to be reciprocated between on and off positions, it would only be necessary to enlarge port II at its far side. with the port enlarged on both sides as here shown, the valve can be turned in either direction from on. to of! without danger of clipping whichever side of the O-ring passing the outlet port happens to be the leading side.

In Figures 4 to 6 the housing 20 has an inlet port 2| anda coaxial outlet port 22 of the same size intersecting a seat 22. Grooves 24 and 25 are formed in the seat-in surrounding relation to ports v2| and 22, respectively, and contain O-rings-26 and 21, respectively.

A rotary plug 28 mates with the seat and has ports Ill and H of which the former has-a larger diameter than the latter. In the on position of 3 the plug, Figure 4. ring 26 seals with the plug around port "and ring 21 surrounds port 3!.

When the plug is turned toward closed posi-- tion in the direction of the arrow, Figure 5, the trailing side of port ll engages the far side, in the direction of turn, of ring 21 to form a seal around port 22 while the trailing side of port III is still spaced from the far side of ring 26. Since flow through passage 29 is thus cut oil, the far side of ring 26, which side would ordinarily be affected by the disturbing flow, remains in the groove and consequently will not be damaged when the chamfered edge of port 30 passes it.

Any suitable check means may be provided to insure that port will always be the inlet port. If the plug had only a 90 turning range it would be necessary to enlarge port only at its far side.

The enlarged ports are shown as circular as a matter of manufacturing expediency. Obviously, the enlargement could be only at one or both sides.

Instead of O-rings as such, I may employ equivalent sealing means such, for example, as the harness type shown in the copending application of Lucien W. Mueller, Serial No. 591,915,

filed May 4, 1945. Other variations in the form.

and relation of parts are contemplated under the claims which follow.

I claim:

1. A valve comprising a housing having a seat of circular cross section and inlet and outlet ports intersecting said seat, a plug in said seat having a flow passage, said plug being turnable between on and all? positions, grooves in said plug respectively surrounding said ports when the plug is in off position, and continuous rubber sealing elements in said grooves and deformable by fluid pressure in the off position into sealing engagement with the plug and seat, said elements lying between said ports in the on position, said ports and sealing elements being so related that when the plug is turned from on to off position the leading side of one of said elements will seal with the seat at the far side of the inlet port before the leading side of the other element reaches the far edge of the outlet port.

2. A valve comprising a housing having a seat of circular cross section and inlet and outlet ports intersecting said seat, a plug in said seat having a flow passage, said plug being turnable between on and 011 positions, grooves in said plug respectively surrounding said ports when the plug is in oif position, and continuous rubber sealing elements in said grooves and deformable by fluid pressure in the off position into sealing engagement with the plug and seat, said elements lying between said ports in the on position, said outlet port being laterally enlarged so that when the plug is turned from on to ofi position the leading side of one of said elements will seal with the seat at the far side of the inlet port before the leading side of the other element reaches the far edge of the outlet port.

3. A valve comprising a housing having a seat of circular cross section and inlet and outlet ports intersecting said seat, a plug in said seat having a flow passage. said plug being turnable between on and of! positions, grooves in said plug respectively surrounding said ports when the plug is in oil position, and continuous rubber sealing elements in said grooves and deformable by fluid pressure in the oil. position into sealing 4 plus and seat. said elements ports in the on position, said suiliciently greater lateral dimension than the inlet port so that when the plug is turned in either direction from on to oil position the leading side of one of said elements will seal with the seat at the far side of the inlet port before the leading side of theother element reaches the far edge of the outlet port.

4. A valve comprising a housing member having inlet and cross section plug member in said seat having a passage including inlet and outlet ports registrable with the housing member ports, said plug being turnable between on and on positions, said seat and plug member having opposed surfaces, the surface of one of said members being provided with annular grooves which in the off position of the plug member surround the ports of said housing member, continuous rubber sealing elements in said grooves deformable by fluid pressure into sealing enga ement with the seat, one of the ports of the other of said members being laterally enlarged so that when the plug member is turned from on to off position a seal will be established by one of said sealing elements around one of the housing member ports to cut oil. flow through said passage before a seal is established by the other sealing element around the other housing member port, in order to prevent inlet pressure from escaping around the plug member and forcing the sealing element subjected to the influence of such pressure, to be pinched or mutilated as the plug member is being turned to its oil Position.

5. A valve comprising a housing having a seat of circular cross section and inlet and outlet ports intersecting said seat, a plug in said seat having a flow passage including inlet and outlet ports registrable with the housing ports, said plug being turnable between on and of! positions, said seat having grooves surrounding the housing ports and surrounding the plug ports when the plug is in on position, continuous rubber sealing elements in said grooves deformable by fluid pressure in the off position into sealing engagement with the plug and seat, the plug inlet port being laterally enlarged so that the trailing edge of the plug outlet port completes a seal with the sealing element which surrounds the housing outlet port before the trailing edge of said enlarged port reaches the far side of the other sealin element.

6. A valve according to claim 5 wherein the plug inlet port is enlarged at both sides.

LORIN E. GROSBOLL.

REFERENCES CITED UNITED STATES PATENTS engagement with the lying between said outlet port being of Number Name Date 862,143 Duffy Aug. 6, 1907 2,383.988 Melichor Sept. 4, 1945 2,392,319 Harwood Jan. 8, 1946 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 18,994 Great Britain of 1891 456,610 Great Britain Nov. 12, 1936 

